Before he capitulated to the cancer that lay siege to his throat behind the warring fog of cigar smoke, a lethal Anaconda Plan executed to precision, cutting off air, squeezing and suffocating his lungs, the victorious general of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Appomattox reflected on his life, penned his memoirs, handed them unceremoniously to Mark Twain, then unconditionally surrendered. U.S. Grant fought to end slavery though he’d owned slaves once himself.
After a recent faculty meeting, one of my departmental colleagues and I hopped into my brown Subaru (still sporting the “Make America Great Again” bumper sticker if you’re wondering) and headed off to meet some other colleagues at the local brew pub. As we drove along, my friend told me about a home-improvement headache she was contending with after a serious wind storm hit Colorado Springs earlier that week. The
My friend, colleague, and fellow native Alabamian, Gary Walker, wrote an excellent USR essay reflecting on being a writer who just happens to be from the South. Despite others’ expectations that he write about red dirt, hunting, fishing, football, the land, and the people, Gary confessed that he doesn’t really feel motivated to write about Dixie-themed topics. Gary’s admission is a little surprising (after all, his dog’s name is Elvis),
A Response to Frost’s “Mending Wall” Sorry I weren’t in a talking mood when we was fixing the wall. I was pretty wore out from helping Hiram cut stove wood after his boy sawed off his hand and died and my son’s wife run off again. Don’t think Amy ever will git over losing that baby. But I don’t like to go on about it. You’ve had your own troubles.
(In today’s column, I feature “A Christmas Memory,” a short story written by a fellow native Alabamian, the late Truman Capote. I first heard this story forty years ago. In December of 1977, Mr. Randal Simmons, my seventh-grade English teacher, read it to our class. Even then, I admired its simple and elegant beauty as expressed through my teacher’s soothing words. Mr. Simmons passed away some years ago, but I’ll
(A Found Poem) Dear Applicant: Please provide the requested information so this office can make a Medicaid eligibility determination for the above claimant currently confined to a skilled nursing home facility. If the requested information is not received within twenty (20) days, the claimant’s Medicaid eligibility will be denied or… Terminated.
